Mustangs Conquer 'Outback'

The George Mason High School football team erased any doubt that their 6-0 victory in last year’s Outback Bowl was a fluke, prevailing over cross-town rival Falls Church High School 33-18.

The Mustangs converted three crucial Jaguar turnovers into three touchdowns to blow open the annual cross-town preseason benefit game.

“Turnovers are always a factor, and the more there are, the bigger the factor,” George Mason Head Coach Tom Horn said. “I think Falls Church really cost themselves some opportunities with timing of their turnovers.”

Mason leapt out to an early lead, scoring on its first three drives, two of those touchdowns resulting from Falls Church turnovers.

The Mustangs struck first when Williams pushed a goal-line carry into the end zone to give Mason a 6-0 lead. Following a successful extra-point kick by junior Gregg Curtin, the Jaguars seemed destined to answer, marching downfield on the strength of senior quarterback James Gannon’s arm. The senior QB repeatedly picked apart the Mason secondary, but made a costly mistake when junior Travis Greene picked off a pass over the middle to squelch the Jaguar scoring drive. Mere seconds later Mason junior quarterback Eric Blush found Schwengel downfield for a 29-yard touchdown pass.

A failed extra-point attempt left the score at 13-0, when a Jaguar fumble led to another Mustang score, this time a one-yard run by Williams.

Trailing 19-0 late in the first half, the Jaguars finally broke up the shutout when Robinson took a sweep six yards to the end zone for the score. The ensuing two-point conversion pass was broken up, leaving the score at 19-6 heading into the break.

The game narrowed substantially in the early going of the second half.

With the score 19-6, the Jaguars closed the gap, scoring on their first possession of the half when senior running back Eddie Robinson bounced outside the left tackle to take the ball into the end zone from 10 yards out.

On the ensuing Mustang possession the Jags tightened up defensively to force Mason to go three and out. However a third costly turnover on the ensuing punt gave the ball back to Mason deep inside Jaguar territory. Nine plays later, Mason scored again on a three-yard run from senior running back Stephen Williams to squelch any Falls Church momentum.

“Our young men are not intimidated and they played like they expected to have success,” Horn said. “I thought we got some good performances by some younger kids and most of our kids tackled very well.”

Williams finished the day with a team-high 112-yards rushing on 27 carries. Junior teammates Travis Greene and John Schwengel finished with 65 and 30 yards respectively. Robinson led the ground attack for the Jags.

Coming into the game, concerns had been raised about the diminutive size of this year’s Mason team. In this game anyway, any size advantage was partially alleviated by the Jaguars’ spread offense.

“Falls Church is big, but they don’t play big-style football,” Horn said. “With their spread offense they gave our little guys a chance to make plays in space as opposed to having to make them in the trenches.”

While this game was reassuring to Horn on one level, but his concerns aren’t entirely pacified yet.

“We will have trouble lining up against teams that are big and play big,” Horn said. “We have some work to do on offense but our kids up front made some nice strides. If they can block Falls Church’s size and the number of players they had in the box, then they will do fine the rest of the way.”